Alice's eyes snapped open at the sound of her writer's pages ruffling. Suddenly awake, she made a mad scramble to slam it shut again before the Alarm Page began hooting at her. It wouldn't have been as bad if it was an owl hoot, like she'd been expecting when she bought the page, but that's what you got for not double-checking a Weasley product... she'd boughten monkey instead. They offered free trade-outs, of course, but she kept forgetting to stop by one of their branches.
Not wanting to fall asleep again, Alice took a deep breath and sat up on the edge of her bed - today she would finally be delivering her last letter. She'd already tried to meet with the Muggle family three times, as crazy as that sounded, and this fourth try would hopefully get her all the way through. The first time she'd been turned away by a rather cold doorman, who instructed her to schedule an appointment of all things. After going and doing that, it turned out it wasn't to meet with the family at all, but only to be screened in what felt like an interview. She'd almost been turned away from that, too - after all, you couldn't just go around prattling off the secrets of the magical world to some random Muggle.
What had landed her a second meeting was her shouting (as she was being escorted through the door by a rather large man) that the child - Nathaniel Zoldik - was unusually gifted, and that she had a letter of acceptance for him to a very special school..
The interviewer's tone had gone from annoyed to sharp in an instant.
"What do you know about Nathaniel?"
"Not much, personally," Alice said, "but the - er, people I work for - are aware of his talents, and have seen fit to accept him as a student!"
The interviewer took a breath.
"Miss...?"
"Professor McDonnell."
He laced his fingers. "Miss McDonnell... I should tell you that your comment just now has me strongly considering reporting both you and this organization you work for to the police. As you may very well know, Nathaniel's educational records are not authorized for public release, and any possession of them would be a violation of his personal and intellectual property rights."
Alice, still being crowded by the large Muggle, wasn't sure what to say.
"I would also very much like to know the identity of the organization you work for," he continued, "as to perform a thorough background check."
"Oh, sorry," she said, "but I'm not allowed to say much outside of Nathaniel's immediate family. But rest assured, there is nothing worrisome going on! The school I represent is concerned solely with education, and the development of... er, a gifted child's unique talents."
"Madam. You came to Mr. Zoldik's place of residence unannounced and unrecognized, seeking entrance, a matter which I should also like to investigate. You come to our meeting dressed..." he waved his hand around, searching for the right word - "casually, carrying a broomstick and lacking any form of identification. You state that you, or the educational institution you represent, possess delicate information concerning Nathaniel's personal records, and now you tell me that you are unable to disclose anything further over the matter? Quite frankly, the only reason you're still in this room is because you pose a potential threat to the Zoldik Family's privacy. Now, before you are allowed to leave, I have a number of questions that you would do very well to answer to the best of your ability."
In that moment, Alice understood the views some people had regarding Muggles.
"Sir, I would love to cooperate, but as I've already said, there is only so much I can tell you. I am simply here to deliver Nathaniel his acceptance letter, and to answer any questions his parents might have. The educational institution I represent has nothing but his best interests at heart, I promise you!"
"Miss McDonnell, it is not up to you to decide what Nathaniel's best interests are."
"Oh, yes - of course, I'm sorry. I meant no offense."
The man said nothing.
"If it truly is impossible to see Nathaniel's family right now," she continued, "I could ask a representative from our ministry to accompany me. With them present, I might be allowed to say more."
"...Your ministry?"
Alice was starting to panic. When had things suddenly gotten so complicated? The large Muggle behind her was much too close, the man was being extraordinarily difficult and only assuming the worst things, and now she'd said more than she should have.
"Please, let's arrange another meeting! I'll do what I can to bring a representative with me next time, and with them here I will try to answer more of your questions!"
As if by magic (and, afterward, Alice wondered if she truly did use some magic), the man's face relaxed, and he agreed to another meeting in two days' time.
She fled from the building in relief. How had couple of Muggles managed to put her in such a state? Taking out her writer, she quickly scrawled a few messages - the first was to her friend Maves Barnes, who was the head of the Muggle Relations Department, asking if he or anyone he knew was available to assist her in the next meeting. The second and third messages were to her romantic partner, a man by the name of Gregor Hollins, and to her friend and coworker Wendy Figg, a low-level Care of Magical Creatures instructor, both concerning her frustrations with the Zoldik Family so far.
Fortunately, Maves happened to have someone available. In two days' time Alice returned to the meeting place - a small, gray building in the business district of London - with a young man by the name of Eric Stynes, who was a recent hire in Maves's department.
You weren't kidding about him being young! Alice scrawled, when she and Eric were in-line for coffee.
Trust me, Maves wrote back, his neat penmanship appearing on the page just below her own, he may be a new hire, but he's definitely capable.
As it turned out, he was right. Eric handled the interview extremely well, not only getting the Muggle interviewer and security guard to sign an agreement to have all records of their meeting purged, but had come extraordinarily well-prepared. He was dressed in a suit similar to theirs, spoke in a vocabulary similar to their own, and was clearly informed about all the odd little Muggle rules they had set up for themselves when conducting business matters.
Within the span of a two hours he was able to get the Muggles to call off the police task force that had been waiting in ambush, rendered the Muggles speechless with some very minor magical demonstrations, and had convinced them that Nathaniel was capable of doing magic himself.
"Has the young Mr. Zoldik never been involved in any strange circumstances?" Eric asked, pacing the room. "Were there never any times when seemingly inexplicable things would happen, in his presence?"
The interviewer and security guard shared a glance at that.
A short time later (once a call was made and a meeting arranged), the interviewer and guard had their memories altered, and Alice and Eric were leaving the small, gray office building once more.
"I must say, that memory charm really caught me by surprise," she said.
"Handy, isn't it?" he responded. "It's a new one, too, from our friends in the States. Just a red flash and not only are their memories wiped, but their minds fill in the blank with the most believable explanation they can come up with!"
"I meant the suddenness of it... wouldn't it have been fair to, you know, warn them first?"
"Well..." he said, expression quizzical, "they did agree to have all records of the meeting purged, after all. And besides, they're only Muggles, really."
She stared at him.
"Er, sorry," he mumbled, his confident demeanor dropping - "I was just joking. Honest."
"Hmm..."
"Should we, er, exchange tabs? Until the meeting?" He asked.
"Yes, I suppose that'd be for the best."
Each of them peeled a sticky-tab from the pads at the back of their writers and exchanged them. She attached his green one to the top of a new page, leaving just enough sticking out for visibility when the writer closed, and he did the same with her blue tab. Next to her old, leather-bound writer, his sleek, black, moleskine one looked infinitely more professional.
"What edition is that?" she asked, trying to end things on a friendly note.
"It's the Scribe Eclipse," he said proudly. "Standard issue in the Ministry. You can add up to two hundred contacts with ten pages each, and it's able to recognize when you're done so it doesn't send a message off prematurely. There's even a two-way mirror under the front cover!"
Her eyebrows raised. "Sounds expensive."
"Yes, but most would say that it's worth it. So, the meeting's at four o'clock?"
"Yeah."
They both scribbled down a reminder on their Calendar Pages.
"Great! I'll write you beforehand so we can prepare for the meeting," Eric said.
"Sounds good."
"Until then!"
He vanished from beside her with a loud pop, leaving her alone on the sidewalk.
Alice spent the rest of the day flying around London, invisible, on her broomstick. She actually ended up paying the Ministry a visit at one point, but only to look up a few records on Ray's family history. That evening, she stopped by the Witch's Brew to catch up on some reading before returning to her parents' house, and the next day delivered Ray her letter. Now here she was, waking up on the day of the meeting.